


Learning what life is

by WinnieThePoohLover



Category: Women's Soccer RPF
Genre: Angst, F/F, F/M, Fluff, Football | Soccer, Gen, Geniuses, Olympique Lyonnais, Orphans
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2020-10-14
Updated: 2020-10-14
Packaged: 2021-03-09 00:00:14
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,300
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/27005470
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/WinnieThePoohLover/pseuds/WinnieThePoohLover
Summary: Lisa Armstrong is 16 years old and is playing professionally for OL, Olympique Lyon. At her club, she is in the starting eleven nearly every match, she is a so-called playing genius. Just before the World Cup of 2015, she is called to play for the USWNT at the Algarve Cup.Before the call up she didn't have a life, she didn't have anyone who she calls family before and after her parents died. But through the years of playing with the USWNT, reliving old memories and meeting old friends she is enjoying her life and playing football a lot more. Read her journey from the beginning to the end of playing with the USWNT, her life and much more.
Relationships: Ali Krieger/Original Female Character(s), Ashlyn Harris/Ali Krieger, Ashlyn Harris/Original Female Character(s), Carli Lloyd/Original Female Character(s), Christen Press/Original Female Character(s), Kelley O'Hara/Original Female Character(s), Servando Carrasco/Alex Morgan, Sue Bird/Megan Rapinoe, Tobin Heath/Christen Press, Tobin Heath/Original Female Character(s)
Comments: 3
Kudos: 21





	Learning what life is

**Author's Note:**

> The updates won't be regular because I have college.   
> HEADS-UPP MAJOR CHANGES!!! The timeline has changed and things have been added to the chapter

**Chapter 1: the call-up**

**End of February 2015**

A phone rings….

Ring…..ring….ring….ring…ring..

A person is sighing. A hand reaches into a backpack while another hand is trying to open a door with her keys. The person who is being called, is wearing her after-training clothes, it consist of nice black shoes, some pair of jeans, her red and black squared blouse and next to that she wears a black beanie-hat. If she isn’t in her training clothes or some form of sports clothes, she will wear nice pair of pants and a blouse. When she opens her phone, she looks confuses because she doesn’t know the number.

“Bizarre, je n’attendais personne.” she mutters with a confused face. When she accepts the call, she doesn’t recognize the voice. The friendly sounding voice has a soft British accent while sounding professionally. Lisa opens the door, steps inside and stands still. She is still thinking about the person who is calling her, because she clearly doesn’t know the person. _Weird, I expected no one._

“Hello Lisa Armstrong. You are speaking with Jill Ellis, the coach of the national female football team of America. I would like to call you up to the team for the Algarve Cup.” The other voice, Jill Ellis, says. Lisa is surprised by the call because she did not expect anyone from America to 1. notice her and 2. to pay attention to the European Woman Leagues.

“Dear miss Ellis, first of all thank you for the call up. I am able to play for Scotland and France next to the USA because of my triple nationality. Why should I choose to represent the USA team and don’t you have other players in mind?” She answers back with deep inters of what the reply will be, she dumps her bag on a couch, sits next to bag and runs a hand through her short curly red hair that peeks out of beanie hat. Both sides of her head is shaved very short, while on top of her head her hair is to her right side and to ends underneath her ear.

“That is indeed a great question, I believe you have a lot of potential and the other player that I could have called up is injured and not as young as you. You will bring new and fresh energy into the team, it will probably inspire and challenge the other players. Furthermore you have shown that you are ready to compete in international level, you play regularly as a starter at Olympique Lyon. You have so much high level playing experience, also at Linköping. You played against some international USA players in Sweden. Yes I do believe you have the talent, experience and the knowledge to be able to certainly play at the Algarve Cup and possible at the World Cup.” She explained with valuable arguments. Lisa thinks for a moment to consider her answer because this could change her live sort of.

“Look Jill, I will take this opportunity because it is a one of a lifetime opportunity to play for a world class female football country. The fact that I know that it is a world class female team says a lot because I don’t follow the female football competition except my league which I play in. Next to that, it would be a honour to represent a national team.”

“Thank you Lisa to accept my call up for the team. We will come together for camp at the end of February and it lasts at least till 11 March. During this camp we have three games, there will be a big possibility that you make your debut. That I can see if you are able to play with the team, physically, that you are on the level that I want the players to be when I take the squad to the World cup, and mentally.” Jill explains.

“Thanks for the information, I have a match at the 21st of February so I probable able to join the team at the 23rd. This is due to fact that we need to do our recovery and reflect on the match.” Lisa explains her absence of the camp.

“That is alright, your competition begins and ends at a different time than the NWSL. We, the USWNT management team, will sent you the information and they will sent you some stuff. Do you have some questions?” Jill finishes.

“Yeah, is it possible if I have the number 14? That is my only question.” She asks.

“That is indeed possible, it will be arranged when you are playing for the USWNT. I will see you at the 23rdth, bye.”

“See you at camp.” She finishes the call, pushes the off button. Lisa puts her phone on the table and she smiles softly.

*********

At the moment, Lisa, and her teammates from Lyon who are also part of their national team squads, are sitting in an airplane, flying from Lyon to Faro. The flight has 15 minutes left before the plane is landing, she has nearly slept the whole flight. Lisa is playing with phone during the last half and an hour, most of that time she is playing some stupid little games while the others are mostly talking to each other. Of course for her team mate this all produce, playing with the national team, isn’t new. But to be honest she is a bit excited to be part of the USWNT team and the roster for Algarve Cup.

After a rough landing they are finally allowed to stretch their legs, straighten their clothes and breath some fresh air. It is sunny and light outside, that is the advantage of being in the south of Portugal. After they have walked the extremely long distance from the plane to the checkout and passport control, Lisa’s legs have started to wake up when she was at the passport control.

They have been standing in the waiting line for the passport check what seems for hours. They have finally arrived at the luggage pick up and of course they have to wait again for an extremely long time for their bags. After waiting for a long time for their luggage, she doesn’t have to wait long for a bicycle at the special luggage. When she finally gets her bicycle from the special luggage, she put her bicycle together. Which isn’t very difficult, it is mostly putting the wheels in the frame. While she waits patiently did these things, she is very thankful that her teammates were happy to wait on her. With her backpack on her back, her suitcase in her left hand and her bike in her right hand, they leave the luggage area and walk towards the exit of the airport.

At the exit she see a representative from the team, holding a board with her name on it, before she walks towards him to see why the representative at the airport is. She says goodbye to her teammates, even if she doesn’t join the USWNT management staff representative to travel to the accommodation. It doesn’t mean that it changed the fact that she and her Lyon teammates would still split when they were outside to go to their respectively national teams.

“Hey, why are you here? I mean I don’t know about anything or I wouldn’t ask you about it. I didn’t get an email but if you did send one I didn’t receive it. Maybe you didn’t send it to the correct email address. Do you guys know my email?” She asks and babbled at the same time at the representative while nervously pushing her glasses further up her nose. The man looks confused when she asked the question and why is being awkward as if the situation is completely new to her.

“Weird that you didn’t receive anything. Someone was supposed to let you know about the pick-up at the airport. Do I still need to explain what the plan was or do I need to bring you to the hotel?” He says, trying to explain the situation.

“No thank you to both. I think I know where the hotel is located so I am able to ride my bike to the hotel.” She says denying the help.

“You sure? The hotel is quite some distance from the airport.” The professional looking man says, trying to change her plan or her stubborn thoughts. He is only trying to do his job, making sure that the representables of the team are transported safely. When she shows, that she has plans to cycle to the hotel, he is not entirely convinced it is a safe way to travel.

“I will be fine, back in France I cycle every day in a very busy city so I am used to cycle in busy cities. Even if I compare the distance to distances I cycle back home, it is nothing.” She says back, still trying to convince him.

“Alright, I will let you cycle to the hotel. Keep in mind that they will soon start the training. I can take your bags with me so you don’t have to bring them with you.” He finishes and stops trying to convince her what is the best option. He has just settled on a compromise.

“Fineeee, you can take my bag. Now if we are finally finished, I would like to go because I like to pick some minutes of the training.” She signs, hoping the conversation is finally finished and dropping her biggest bag on the ground near his feet.

“Okay, you can go. Go before I change my mind.” He says, nearly pushing her away. She lets out a very big breath, she says goodbye to her while moving to the exit. The moment she is outside, she puts her backpack good on her back and jumps on her bicycle. Now a new chapter in her football career starts.

*********

Lisa arrives after 15 minutes of cycling, through the lovely warm weather of Portugal, at the hotel where the team stays during the Algarve Cup. It was easy to find the hotel, since her google maps lead her to the place. While she is stumbling and nearly tripping on her feet multiple time, through the lobby, she is greeted by the management of the team. She is being told by the management that the teams just left for the training at the training fields.

“Is it still possible to join them? This way I will get some feeling of playing with the team and what the team is like. Next to that, I just have flow and I want to warm up my body and to remove some stiffness from it.” Lisa says trying to argument why she wants to join them this late.

“Are you sure you want to train this early after landing? Otherwise I don’t mind and I believe that Jill will be happy that you will be to join them even for just a bit. But to let you know, they just left for the stadium.” The management say.

“I will be fine, I have my bicycle to get to the stadium and Google Maps for the route so I will be fine. Don’t worry I have cycled to the training location in Lyon every day.” And that was the end of the conversation, the only compromise is that Lisa has to have someone who follow her with the car. This way they know that she arrives safely and well.

After the conversation Lisa leaves her bicycle with the management and quickly takes out her bicycle shoes for some slip-in things because she will waste time trying to take her bicycle to her room with her. She goes to the reception to get her key, her room is apparently on the second floor. She decided, because her room is on one of the lower levels, that she is running on the stairs to her room. So after a couple of minutes of running on the stairs and nearly tripping multiple times, she arrives at her room. The first thing she sees, is that the room is quite clean and the one of the two beds is still made up. It means that she has a roommate, she doesn’t really mind it and during a tournament it is nice to have someone to surely spend some time together with. On the clean bed lays a packet with some USWNT clothes, so she changes quickly into these clothes. The packet consists of a white training shirt with blue stripes on the shoulders, some dark blue shorts, on the sides of the shorts are red stripes and some other stuff with long sleeves or pants but they are not important for the training today. When she has changed, she quickly takes off her glasses, changes them for her contact lenses and puts her glasses in their case.

Around ten minutes later Lisa arrives back in the lobby, after she has changed and checks that everything is in the small bag. In the small bag are things like your training boots, a pair of cycle boots and some other things. While she is changing to her cycle boots, she is being introduced to the team member who is going to follow her with the car and is being told that he is standing standby in the car at the front of the hotel. She puts the address of the stadium in Google Maps and takes a look at the route, she does this to get some familiarity of the routes she has to take. She puts on her bag, accepts her bike from the team member and walks outside, steps on her bike and leaves the scene.


End file.
